Will one of this summer’s Hollywood blockbusters star a whistleblower?

Whistleblower tales offer drama, intrigue, good guys and bad guys. So, it’s no wonder Hollywood loves them. The web is filled with lists of whistleblower movies. They include classics like “On the Waterfront” and recent films like “The Post.” They range from documentaries to thrillers to based-on-a-true story bio pics. Now, add a new one to the intelligence whistleblower genre.

While railing at TV news coverage of Tony Blair’s double-speak concerning his position on the George W. Bush government’s intention to invade Iraq in 2003, British intelligence translator Katharine Gun, played with the requisite impassioned principles by Keira Knightley, fumes, “Just because you’re the prime minister doesn’t mean you get to make up your own facts.”

Gun, an intelligence agency translator, was charged under the Official Secrets Act for passing an email to a reporter. She said the note was from US spies asking British officers to tap phones of nations voting on war against Iraq, according to a BBC report.

The memo, from January last year, reportedly said the National Security Agency had begun a “surge” in eavesdropping on UN Security Council countries crucial to the vote on a second resolution for action in Iraq.

Officials from Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria, Guinea and Pakistan all had their phones tapped in what the Observer described as a “dirty tricks” operation…

The charges were dropped in 2004 with little explanation.

(Gun) told a news conference after: “Obviously I’m not prone to leak secrets left, right and centre… but this needed to get out, the public deserved to know what was going on at the time.

About Us

The National Whistleblower Center (NWC), a non-profit, tax-exempt, non-partisan organization, is the leading whistleblower advocacy organization with an over 30-year history of protecting the right of individuals to report wrongdoing without fear of retaliation and securing rewards to whistleblowers for helping deliver criminal and civil penalties against wrongdoers.

The National Whistleblower Legal Defense and Education Fund (NWLDEF) is a non-profit law firm that provides services to the NWC and whistleblowers from around the world. NWC and NWLDEF run the Whistleblower Protection Blog to inform readers about whistleblowers in the news and advances in whistleblower protections.